The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

85

•• Collaborate with other impact investors to leverage their experience, skills, and resources. •• Be prepared to take some risks and make some mistakes. •• Analyze and measure your impact. We also experienced some of the common mistakes that she summa- rizes, such as falling into the “mission trap” (i.e., getting carried away by the promised impact, while underestimating the risks of an invest- ment), underappreciating the cultural challenges related to the traditional divide between social good and making money, and prioritizing values and integrity over skills in a partner (Balandina Jaquier, 2011, p. 15ff ). Sourcing and screening investment oppor tunities What have we learned on our journey to date, and how do we actually source and evaluate investments as well as manage our portfolio for maxi- mum impact value creation? There is no one best way, and the sourcing options we have used are quite diverse. Angaza came on our radar screen during a scouting tour in East Africa. Founder Lesley Marincola had devel- oped a keen interest in elea, as she found it very challenging to raise patient philanthropic impact investment capital in Silicon Valley. Both Dharma Life and Coffee Circle were introduced to us through our network (i.e., the responsible leaders’ circle of the BMW Foundation). BagoSphere was also identified during a scouting tour that included the Philippines. Our experience in sourcing investments through the years has been characterized by a mix of systematic and opportunistic approaches, with a clear trend toward more proactive, analytical methods. Scouting tours play a major role. These entail a visit to two or three countries by one of elea’s associates to systematically identify potential investments based on dili- gent preparation. Preparation activities include carrying out thorough desk research that leverages the relevant information available on websites and in social media, making use of elea’s network, and accessing diverse infor- mation sources, such as the Swiss embassy, executives from global corpora- tions, local incubation initiatives, and business-plan competition platforms. During an initial phase of building elea, clear criteria for identifying a promising investment still had to be defined and continuously adjusted. Furthermore, the desired portfolio characteristics – in terms of risk,